Association between breastfeeding and new mothers' sleep: a unique Australian time use study.

BACKGROUND: Infant sleep is of great interest to new parents. There is ongoing debate about whether infants fed with breastmilk substitutes sleep longer than those exclusively or partially breastfed, but what does this mean for the mother? What expectations are realistic for mothers desiring to exclusively breastfeed as recommended by health authorities? There are both biological and social influences on infant and maternal sleep. More accurate information on average maternal sleep hours for diverse feeding practices may help guide realistic expectations and better outcomes for mothers, infants and families. METHODS: Using a unique time use dataset purposefully designed to study the time use of new mothers, this study investigated whether the weekly duration of maternal sleep, sleep disturbance, unpaid housework, and free time activities differed by detailed feeding method. The study collected 24/7 time use data from 156 mothers of infants aged 3, 6 and/or 9 months between April 2005 and April 2006, recruited via mother's groups, infant health clinics, and childcare services throughout Australia. Sociodemographic and feeding status data were collected by questionnaire. Statistical analysis used linear mixed modelling and residual maximum likelihood analysis to compare effects of different infant feeding practices on maternal time use. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in time spent asleep between lactating and non lactating mothers, though lactating mothers had more time awake at night. Lactating mothers spent more time (8.5 h weekly) in childcaring activity (p = 0.007), and in employment (2.7 vs. 1.2 h, p < 0.01), but there were no significant differences in free time. Those not breastfeeding spent more time in unpaid domestic work. Exclusive breastfeeding was associated with reduced maternal sleep hours (average 7.08 h daily). Again, free time did not differ significantly between feeding groups. Exclusively breastfeeding mothers experienced reduced sleep hours, but maintained comparable leisure time to other mothers by allocating their time differently. Domestic work hours differed, interacting in complex ways with infant age and feeding practice. CONCLUSIONS: Optimal breastfeeding may require realistic maternal sleep expectations and equitable sharing of paid and unpaid work burdens with other household members in the months after the birth of an infant.

Maternal Time Use and Nurturing: Analysis of the Association Between Breastfeeding Practice and Time Spent Interacting with Baby.

BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding supports child development through complex mechanisms that are not well understood. Numerous studies have compared how well breastfeeding and nonbreastfeeding mothers interact with their child, but few examine how much interaction occurs. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Our study of weekly time use among 156 mothers of infants aged 3-9 months investigated whether lactating mothers spend more time providing emotional support or cognitive stimulation of their infants than nonbreastfeeding mothers, and whether the amount of such interactive time is associated with breastfeeding intensity. Mothers were recruited via mother's and baby groups, infant health clinics, and childcare services, and used an electronic device to record their 24-hour time use for 7 days. Sociodemographic and feeding status data were collected by questionnaire. Statistical analysis using linear mixed modeling and residual maximum likelihood analysis compared maternal time use for those giving "some breastfeeding" and those "not breastfeeding." Analysis was also conducted for more detailed feeding subgroups. RESULTS: Breastfeeding and nonbreastfeeding mothers had broadly similar socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Breastfeeding was found to be associated with more mother-child interaction time, a difference only partially explained by weekly maternal employment hours or other interactive care activities such as play or reading. CONCLUSION: This study presents data suggesting that lactating mothers spent significantly more hours weekly on milk feeding and on carrying, holding, or soothing their infant than nonlactating mothers; and on providing childcare. Understanding the mechanisms by which child mental health and development benefits from breastfeeding may have important implications for policies and intervention strategies, and could be usefully informed by suitably designed time use studies.

Who pays for the health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding? An analysis of maternal time costs.

BACKGROUND: The benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, including public health cost savings, are widely recognized, but breastfeeding requires maternal time investments. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the time taken to exclusively breastfeed at 6 months compared with not exclusively breastfeeding. METHODS: Time use data were examined from an Australian survey of new mothers conducted during 2005-2006. Data from 139 mothers with infants age 6 months were analyzed using chi-square tests of independence to examine socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and 2-sided t tests to compare average weekly hours spent on milk feeding, feeding solids, preparing feeds, and the total of these. The comparison was of exclusively breastfeeding mothers with other mothers. We also compared exclusively breastfeeding with partially breastfeeding and formula feeding mothers using a 1-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: The exclusively breastfeeding (vs other) mothers spent 7 hours extra weekly on milk feeding their infants but 2 hours less feeding solids. These differences were statistically significant. ANOVA revealed significant differences between exclusively breastfeeding mothers, breastfeeding mothers who had introduced solids, and mothers who fed any formula, in time spent feeding milk, and solids, and preparing feeds. CONCLUSION: Exclusive breastfeeding is time intensive, which is economically costly to women. This may contribute to premature weaning for women who are time-stressed, lack household help from family, or cannot afford paid help. Gaining public health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding requires strategies to share maternal lactation costs more widely, such as additional help with housework or caring for children, enhanced leave, and workplace lactation breaks and suitable child care.

The balance between facilitation and competition in mixtures of Eucalyptus and Acacia changes as stands develop.

The balance between facilitation and competition is likely to change with age due to the dynamic nature of nutrient, water and carbon cycles, and light availability during stand development. These processes have received attention in harsh, arid, semiarid and alpine ecosystems but are rarely examined in more productive communities, in mixed-species forest ecosystems or in long-term experiments spanning more than a decade. The aim of this study was to examine how inter- and intraspecific interactions between Eucalyptus globulus Labill. mixed with Acacia mearnsii de Wildeman trees changed with age and productivity in a field experiment in temperate south-eastern Australia. Spatially explicit neighbourhood indices were calculated to quantify tree interactions and used to develop growth models to examine how the tree interactions changed with time and stand productivity. Interspecific influences were usually less negative than intraspecific influences, and their difference increased with time for E. globulus and decreased with time for A. mearnsii. As a result, the growth advantages of being in a mixture increased with time for E. globulus and decreased with time for A. mearnsii. The growth advantage of being in a mixture also decreased for E. globulus with increasing stand productivity, showing that spatial as well as temporal dynamics in resource availability influenced the magnitude and direction of plant interactions.

Reversing a tree regeneration crisis in an endangered ecoregion.

Global food demand is growing rapidly. Livestock grazing can provide a valuable source of protein, but conventional grazing is often unsustainable. We studied an 800,000-ha section of a threatened ecoregion in southeastern Australia. Conventional management in the region involves continuous livestock grazing with few rest periods and regular fertilizer application. By using remotely sensed data on tree cover and extensive field data on livestock grazing regimes, soil chemistry, tree diameters, and tree regeneration, we show that the region is facing a tree regeneration crisis. Under conventional management, across the region, millions of hectares of land currently supporting tens of millions of trees will be treeless within decades from now. This would have severe negative ramifications for biodiversity and key ecosystem services, including water infiltration and shade provision for livestock. However, we identified an unexpected win-win solution for tree regeneration and commercial grazing. A relatively new practice in the region is fast-rotational grazing, characterized by prolonged rest periods in between short, intensive grazing events. The probability of regeneration under fast-rotational grazing was up to 4-fold higher than under conventional grazing, and it did not differ significantly from the probability of regeneration in ungrazed areas. In addition, trees were more likely to regenerate where soil nutrient levels were low. These findings suggest that the tree regeneration crisis can be reversed by applying low-input, fast-rotational grazing. New policy settings supporting these practices could signal a turning point for the region, from ecological decline to ecological recovery.